


rule number four

by tmwshj



Category: Cravity (Band)
Genre: Afterlife, Alternate Universe - Afterlife, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Developing Friendships, Fluff, Friendship, Ghosts, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, it gets a little sad at the end, it’s major character death but minhee’s actually dead from the beginning, minisong, this isn’t angst !!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:28:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24598294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tmwshj/pseuds/tmwshj
Summary: “enjoy your afterlife minhee. i won’t forget you.” hyeongjun pulls himself away.“have a good life hyeongjun. you were a nice last friend.”in which the dead should remain dead, but minhee finds himself not caring anyways.
Relationships: Kang Minhee/Song Hyeongjun
Kudos: 40





	rule number four

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to another one of my 1am writing extravaganzas !! this was inspired by a little prompt by tumblr user @/courfeycute .
> 
> enjoy!

** rule number one — don’t interfere in a mortal’s life. **

despite it being the number one rule for the dead, kang minhee finds himself wandering around the school field. he shouldn’t be here — especially in the day. it was as though he was deliberately trying to break rule number one. but he‘s already grown tired of haunting the same boring rooftop. a little exploration won’t hurt right?

_ next week. _

he thinks.

next week, he won’t be known as the rooftop ghost anymore. he won’t be the myth or the chilling story that is told in hushed whispers by students and teachers any longer. he stares longingly at the rooftop where his body had once fallen from. a chill ran up his spine. minhee shakes his head, trying to rid himself of these regretful thoughts. 

he was at peace now, that was what mattered.

minhee continues his mindless stroll along the perimeter of the soccer field, until a voice catches his attention.

“hyeongjun, watch out!”

minhee turns his head as he sees a ball flying across the field at an inhumane speed. that ball was going  _fast_. but that wasn’t the biggest problem at hand. the biggest problem was that this boy, standing motionless in the middle of the field, was about to be hit by this monstrosity of a ball. 

minhee’s protective instincts set in almost immediately, making a mad dash towards the oblivious boy.

minhee hasn’t been dead for too long so he’s pretty certain about the rules of soccer — and standing right smack in the middle of a soccer game is definitely not a good tactic to score a goal.

for a moment, minhee contemplates if doing this was _really_ worth it.

but he’s is  _ nice _ and you know what? maybe it’s worth the strike on his clean record if he was able to save this poor boy from being absolutely annihilated by this incoming soccer ball.

oh god, or satan (who knows where he’ll be sent?), the ball is coming. his eyes lock onto the soccer ball flying across the field, and it didn’t help that it was kicked by the team’s lucky number 7 and star striker, serim.

with a final stride, he throws himself in front of said boy, hyeongjun, opening his arms wide and bracing for impact. yeah, he may be a ghost, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t feel pain! and boy, did that soccer ball to the chest sting like a bitch. he winces at the pain, still holding the soccer ball to his chest.

_oh shit._

“dude! the ball’s floating!”

“no it isn’t— holy crap!” 

minhee wishes he wasn’t such a shitty ghost, immediately releasing the ball from his death grip and watching it fall onto the grass with a thud. why couldn’t he have some sort of cool power while he was waiting for his heaven or hell verdict? swiping people’s memories would be pretty damn cool — and useful, in situations like these. minhee sighs and makes a mental note to bring up the suggestion to whatever higher being there is.

hyeongjun was now the centre of attention, surrounded by the team of sweaty boys. (minhee finds it funny how hyeongjun is literally  _dry_ , meaning that the boy has literally been standing around for majority of the game.) 

“hyeongjun, first of all, i’m sorry,” minhee watches as serim holds both of hyeongjun’s hands, asking for forgiveness. “but second of all, what the fuck, was  _that_.”

minhee snorts as he listens to hyeongjun’s teammates list down absurd reasons one after another.

“are you a witch?”

“seongmin, no.”

“maybe the ball lost its kinetic energy or something...?”

“jungmo, you’re a physics student. you know that’s not how it works.”

“holy shit, what if you have a guardian angel?”

minhee laughs at that one, hopefully he’ll be an angel — a guardian devil doesn’t sound too good.

“can you make shit float?” eight pairs of eyes, including minhee, turn to look at a boy named taeyoung, who had excitedly ripped off his headband, waving it in the air.

poor hyeongjun was absolutely mortified by all the attention placed on him, eyes darting around looking for a way to escape from this unnecessary situation. for a second, minhee feels bad for interjecting and causing this entire fiasco, but then he decides that this was better than a ball to the face. 

the field was silent for a while, with only the faint chirp of birds and crickets, all eyes on hyeongjun as if waiting for him to do something  _as absurd_ , minhee thinks,  _as trying to make a headband float._

but hyeongjun, oh no... (minhee’s eyes widen in actual shock) decides to stretch out his arm, as though he was  _trying_ to make the headband float!

when nothing happens for a good 10 seconds, minhee could practically feel a shiver of  second-hand embarrassment running through his ghostly body, and ghosts can’t feel temperature! minhee sighs again at the sight - the boys still staring expectantly at the headband in taeyoung’s hand and hyeongjun still pointing at it. he drags himself towards taeyoung.

** rule number two — if rule number one were to be broken, do not further interfere in said mortal’s life. **

strike two. minhee’s shoulders slump to his side. he’s so going to hell.

he extends his ghostly hand towards taeyoung’s palm, picking up the sweat-soaked headband. minhee scrunches up his face in disgust.  _ew._

a chorus of ‘woah’s echoed through the field. minhee realises he’s in deep trouble with the devil.

since that day, minhee had no choice but to follow hyeongjun around to every single one of his classes. he learns more about the boy though — he‘s the same age as minhee (before he died), has a small group of close friends (namely dongpyo, eunsang and junho), liked to dance and was generally very, very shy. 

minhee finds it all very, very,  _very_ cute indeed. 

but why was he following hyeongjun around anyways? well, if park serim and ham wonjin were at the scene, word will spread quicker than wildfire. within minutes of the soccer fiasco and as the bell rang for their next period, hyeongjun had already received five separate requests to do some dumb shit — in minhee’s opinion — with his “superpowers”. but minhee’s too _nice_ , and he would rather die (again) than to embarrass hyeongjun.

he also laughs whenever he hears it being described as a “superpower”, because man, it’s called being  _dead._ (okay, he should stop with the death jokes.)

whenever hyeongjun was instructed to make a pen float, all minhee could do was sigh and pick up the pen, followed by a chorus of “ooh”s and “ah”s. minhee found all of this rather troublesome really, but then his eyes trail over to hyeongjun, who had his chest puffed up in pride, like he was proud of this “superpower”. minhee found himself cooing over hyeongjun’s innocence.

it was absolutely endearing. 

a week of minhee being glued by the hip to hyeongjun passes by in a blink. the two boys were in hyeongjun’s room, well, hyeongjun was in hyeongjun’s room — minhee was kind of trespassing. it was a wednesday, and hyeongjun was lying on his bed, scrolling through the onslaught of emails from news agencies who were all “very interested” in his ability. 

minhee was seated cross-legged on hyeongjun’s floor, listening to the sighs and groans from hyeongjun. he watches as hyeongjun throws his phone to the side groaning in frustration, then proceeding to reach his hands upwards, staring at them in disbelief. 

he watches as hyeongjun pushes himself off the bed, making his way to his desk. hyeongjun pauses for a moment before pointing accusingly at a pencil, eyes as focused as they can be.  _he didn’t even look this serious during his math test_ , minhee thinks.

minhee picks up the pencil, holding it up in the air and wobbling it around — just like what he’s been doing for the entire week. when hyeongjun stops pointing, minhee lets go off the pencil, allowing it to fall and clatter onto the table.

hyeongjun sighs for the nth time that afternoon. “what the actual fuck is going on?” 

minhee was flustered at the curse word that came spewing out of hyeongjun’s mouth. with a face as doll-like as hyeongjun’s, you would think that a boy like him wouldn’t even dare to breathe the word ‘stupid’.

hyeongjun slumps into his chair, groaning in annoyance.

“i want my normal life back.” 

minhee felt his heart drop at the confession. he didn’t realise that hyeongjun wasn’t enjoying this newfound attention. he saw that hyeongjun was barely spoken to in class, but after knowing about his ability, his classmates flocked to him one by one. he saw that hyeongjun was a quiet kid, ignored by the people around him, but after knowing about his ability, hyeongjun couldn’t help but be noticed by his classmates. 

never would minhee have thought that maybe, hyeongjun _liked_ being alone. that he liked just having his three best friends with him.

minhee felt a pang of guilt. hyeongjun wasn’t the oblivious one, it was him. 

** rule number three — never reveal yourself to a mortal. **

strike three. oh, screw it. to hell he goes. 

minhee reaches for the pencil on hyeongjun’s desk, picking it up meekly. hyeongjun’s eyes widened as he shot upright in his chair. he stared at the moving pencil, letting out a shaky breath. “holy shit.” hyeongjun said, voice barely above a whisper.

minhee starts writing on a piece of paper.

_ hey _

he starts.

_ so you must be wondering why this is happening to you, right? _

hyeongjun reads the sentence, nodding to no one in particular. it’s amazing how he isn’t scared shitless right now, minhee thinks.

_ well, my name is minhee and i’m dead _

hyeongjun’s face visibly pales. minhee frantically searches for an eraser, rubbing out the ‘dead’ part. real smooth, kang minhee.

_ i’m a GHOST AND IM NOT GOING TO KILL YOU! i’m waiting for my verdict on whether i’m gonna be sent to heaven... or hell_

hyeongjun’s shoulders relaxes after reading this. he’s even... smiling?

“you’re kinda funny, minhee.” hyeongjun says out loud.

minhee feels his insides turn warm at the compliment. it’s weird, because well, ghosts can’t feel temperature. minhee continues writing:

_ i’m sorry i had to make you go through this, i didn’t know you didn’t like it  _

hyeongjun shakes his head, “it’s fine. at least i know what’s actually happening now.”

minhee was about to continue writing when hyeongjun’s bedroom door swings open. 

“what’s actually happening dear?” a nice-looking woman with the same large round eyes as hyeongjun peers into the room. 

the two teenage boys panic — minhee dropping the pencil immediately and hyeongjun diving towards his phone on his bed.

“uh, mom! i’m- i’m- i’m in the middle of a call! i’m busy!” hyeongjun chases the lady out of his room.

“oh, alright dear! just so you know, dinner is ready!” hyeongjun’s mom yells behind her. although minhee couldn’t see her face, he could definitely hear the smile in her voice. what a sweet lady, minhee thinks.

“sorry about that minhee, she doesn’t really knock.” hyeongjun, again, says to no one in particular, face turning a light red. _cute._

minhee picks up the pencil and returns to writing:

_ it’s okay >-< _

_ what are we going to do about your friends though? and the videos? you can’t just say you lost your “powers” overnight... _

hyeongjun falls silent for a minute, fingers tapping his chin like he were in deep thought. 

“i can just tell them that they were hallucinating.” 

minhee scoffs. that’s not how the human mind works.

_ what about the videos?  _

minhee writes.

“we can just say that they were edited. technology is pretty good now, anyways.”

the room falls into silence, minhee still gripping onto the pencil to show that he was there.

“hey, minhee?”

minhee looks up at hyeongjun, who was staring at the paper with minhee’s handwriting. 

“when will you be leaving? this world, or realm, whatever.” 

minhee thinks, shocked when he realises that he didn’t have much time left. 

_ tomorrow _

he scribbled down.

hyeongjun’s eyes widen. “then what are you doing here then? go live your life! or death? whatever it is, you shouldn’t be wasting your last day with me!” 

minhee smiles at hyeongjun’s reaction.

_ it’s fine, i’ve been roaming this world for a year, and this has been the best thing that has happened to me _

minhee finds himself writing this without much thought, because frankly speaking, it was true.

hyeongjun beams after reading the words on the paper. “well then, i’m glad. you’ve been a good companion minhee-ssi. even though it wasn’t too conventional.”

minhee laughs at the comment.

“hey, this sounds weird, and we only met a week ago, but i’m gonna miss you okay? it was a lot of fun messing around with you.”

minhee remembers when hyeongjun had pointed at the lid of the frog cage, determined pout on his face, and how minhee hesitantly peeled off the lid, releasing at least twenty of the slimey amphibians into the classroom. that was legendary.

minhee only has a day left in this world. but you know what, screw the rules. 

** rule number four — do not let a mortal come into contact with you. ever. **

minhee concentrates, feeling his legs start tingling, his fingers start trembling. soon enough, there he was in the flesh, or rather, in the soul, standing in hyeongjun’s room. he looks down at his arms, which were as white as snow, and what he was wearing, was a robe more pristine than any body of water. 

“hi, hyeongjun.” minhee’s voice reverberated around the room. even he’s surprised, he hasn’t heard his voice in a while. 

a lightbulb in hyeongjun’s head seemed to go off. his eyes widen.

“minhee.” hyeongjun squeaks out, shocked by the familiar face. the face he had only seen in pictures in the school newspaper. hyeongjun’s face pales.

“i don’t have much time in this form. do you want a goodbye hug?” minhee smiles, stretching his arms outwards.

hyeongjun doesn’t wait for minhee to complete his sentence though, wrapping his arms around minhee in a tight hug. 

“i’m sorry.” he chokes out. “i’m not sure why i feel like this, maybe it’s because it feels... feels like i’m sending someone off. human or ghost regardless.” hyeongjun mumbles into minhee’s chest. 

minhee pats hyeongjun’s head comfortingly, slowly feeling his robe turn damp.

“hyeongjun, are you crying?”

hyeongjun looks up to minhee with teary eyes. 

“no shit sherlock.”

minhee giggles at the unexpected attitude, and in that moment, minhee felt more alive than ever. 

“enjoy your afterlife minhee. i won’t forget you.” hyeongjun pulls himself away.

“have a good life hyeongjun. you were a nice last friend.” minhee smiles warmly at the teary-eyed hyeongjun, still sniffling at a glowing minhee. 

minhee feels himself becoming lighter. he looks down only to see his body slowly fading away — first his fingers, then his legs, and finally, all that was left was his neck and head. _huh, looks like tomorrow came early._

he gives hyeongjun one final smile, his heart full and overflowing with a sort of incomprehensible love. 

_ thank you.  _

minhee mouths. 

why was he thankful? he couldn’t find the words to explain why. 

angel or devil, it didn’t matter. because minhee had already lived a good life, having met a boy named song hyeongjun.

**Author's Note:**

> if you read closely between the lines, you’ll figure out how minhee died and maybe... why he willingly stuck to hyeongjun and helped him become “popular” (this may be a little hard to catch though). comment your theories if you’d like to, i wanna know what you think!
> 
> thank you so much for reading, i hope you enjoyed this!
> 
> twt - [shjIuvr](https://twitter.com/shjIuvr)


End file.
